La Harpe Biofuels Study Finished

by Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher

Despite the dim outlook for Biofuels, an independent study by Barnes & Associates LLC (FBA) has brought a positive spin to the La Harpe Biofuels project being sought by Jon Hall President and CEO of Bio-NRG, L.L.C.

FBA is a BioEnergy and Biofuels consulting firm in Memphis, TN, with 120 years of experience in the processing and renewable fuel industry. Its late founder, Mr. Rod Frazier led the company into new areas such as Identity Preserved processing and corn fractionation, and according to their website, have been instrumental in demanding feedstock flexibility, whether in oilseed processing, biodiesel or ethanol.

"To meet the needs of the American consumer, we must have complete flexibility and innovation in new feedstock production or face stagnation," it states.

FBA visited La Harpe in August, interviewed stakeholders and LaHarpe-NRG representatives and conducted a feasibility study that analyzed the feedstock, processing, and product market factors related to the construction of an Integrated Oil Seed Crush/Bio-Refinery Facility with a capitol construction cost estimate of $38 million and creating roughly 30 jobs.

"Although no projects if without risk," FBA said they have seen the integrated oil seed crush/bio-fuel refinery work, even in significant industry downturn. Assurance of feedstock is always critical to a successful biodiesel operation" said Pete Moss, President of FBA. John Hall stated, "We are very pleased that our business model has successfully completed third party verification. This is good news to the La Harpe community...we look forward to working with regional investors to get this done."

The project shows a return on equity investment of approximately 29% and in FBA's opinion, it's sufficient to warrant proceeding as it's deemed feasible. Their general rule of thumb is a minimum 22% return on investment to recommend a project.

La Harpe Bio-NRG, LLC is in the pre-construction phase of a 500 ton per-day soybean processing facility and 15 million gallon per year biorefinery to be located on 15 acres in La Harpe. across from the Annex. (Visit their web-site at: www.bio-nrg.info, Twitter: BIONRG, FaceBook: Bio-NRG,LLC.)